On the evening of March 13, 2016, Robyn Mercer had been enjoying an evening meal at her suburban home in Surrey with her daughter Georgia and her friend.
It was a Sunday evening and the mother-of-two had been winding down with a homecooked dinner ahead of her starting the working week again at prestigious antiques dealership J.H. Bourdon-Smith in the upmarket St James’s area of London.
After the meal, Georgia left with her pal to go out for the evening.
Respected expert silver specialist Robyn, as always, emptied the kitchen waste and headed out of her home in West Molesey by the rear wooden gate to plonk the bag into the rubbish bin.
At around 9pm, as she walked into the driveway by the white peeled paint wooden garage doors, she was ferociously hit on the front of the head with an axe or machete.
As she crumpled to the floor, her attacker brutally unleashed further sickening blows to her head and battered her to death. Her injuries were so severe that police at first believed she had been shot.
Inside the house her son, Peter, had his headphones on and was playing his video games totally unaware of what had happened to his beloved mother outside. He did not hear a thing.
Her ex-partner, BT engineer Rob Webb, who still lived at the home, was downstairs.
Robyn lay dead on the cold cement floor for 11 hours until 8am the next day when her body was discovered in a pool of blood.
Robyn Mercer, 50, was bludgeoned to death outside her home in West Molesey, Surrey, on March 13, 2016
The mother-of-two’s killer remains on the loose eight years after her gruesome death in which she was battered to death
The keen rower had enjoyed a family meal before she was attacked as she exited her rear garden gate to take some waste to her rubbish bin
When Georgia returned that day she was greeted by a scene of horror with a police cordon and forensic officers roaming around the murder scene.
The gruesome killing left the community in shock with neighbours and friends describing Robyn as ‘chirpy’, ‘kind-hearted’, and ‘warm’.
Police and forensics officers swarmed to the four-bed £485,000 property in the leafy street to comb for evidence and launched a manhunt for her murderer.
That investigation is now more than eight years old, and Robyn’s killer remains on the loose. Within that time, Surrey police has made six arrests – three on suspicion of murder – the last of which came in 2019.
They have all been released without further action.
Now her brother Quentin Spickernell, a celebrity chef in South Africa, has spoken exclusively to MailOnline in which he reveals worrying details about the case, criticises police for the way they’ve handled the investigation, and accuses officers of ghosting the family.
Speaking from his native country, he says the last time he talked to a murder detective was in 2022 after the family became so frustrated by the investigation he boarded a plane to make the 8,000 mile journey to ‘knock on the police station’s door’ for answers.
But since then, he has heard nothing and Mr Spickernell claims his emails asking for updates on the progress of the case have gone unanswered.
Ms Mercer’s ex partner Robert Webb was ruled out as a murder suspect by detectives but was later jailed for forging her will in order to take control of the home
Quentin Spickernell (pictured), a celebrity chef in South Africa, has spoken exclusively to MailOnline in which he reveals worrying details about the case
Forensics officers and police outside Ms Mercer’s home in 2016 combing for evidence after her brutal killing
Robyn pictured with her brother Quentin Spickernell who has criticised police for not answering the family’s emails for the last two years
And astonishingly, he says police ignored the family’s offer to double the reward to £20,000 for any information that would help solve his sister’s murder.
Surrey police has told MailOnline it is still committed to solving the mystery killing, but Mr Spickernell isn’t convinced.
‘They don’t get back to us, we don’t hear from them,’ he said.
‘We were very disappointed in the police behaviour there [in not replying to emails].’
Asked if he feels like the police have given up, he said: ‘Pretty much. Well, I mean, the circumstances speak for itself because we are asking for information and updates, and we’re receiving nothing.
‘The case goes through numerous changes in investigating officers.
‘There’s a family liaison. There’s a chief inspector, and we’ve emailed numerous people over the years for updates and information… and we haven’t heard anything for two years.’
He added: ‘The last we heard was that there was a mountain of DNA evidence that had to be picked through, and that hasn’t been completed as of yet.’
More troubling for the grieving sibling is how the investigation is being conducted.
He said he feels police have let the family down and is ‘certain’ that murder detectives have wrongly been working to the theory that the brutal killing was a bodged burglary.
‘We’re not sceptical [it wasn’t a burglary], we are certain,’ Mr Spickernell said.
‘If you’re surprised you hit somebody on the head and you run away. You don’t stay and bludgeon them to death.’
MailOnline understands CCTV cameras had been installed outside the home in the autumn of 2015 which pointed to where Robyn would later be found dead.
But they had been removed just days before she was killed.
While neighbours’ doorbell footage and cameras across the street are understood to have not picked up any people in the area or near the driveway at the time of Robyn’s death.
The case, at first, appeared to be making some headway with a flurry of arrests in the first year.
A search of Littleheath Pond in nearby Oxshott in October 2016 is said to have uncovered several items included one that was deemed to be ‘crucial’.
That item, MailOnline understands, is thought to be a hammer or blunt instrument that potentially could have been the murder weapon.
Ms Mercer’s brother has now spoken exclusively to MailOnline where he accuses police of ghosting the family about the murder probe
Police at the home of Ms Mercer in West Molesey, Surrey, in 2016, whose injuries were so severe at first police thought she had been shot
A blue tent outside the home of Ms Mercer on March 14, 2016, after Ms Mercer’s body was discovered
Surrey police has told MailOnline it is still committed to solving the mystery killing and said it needs the public’s help to solve the case
Robyn had moved to England from her native South Africa at the age of 19 to enrol in an English and Georgian silver course at Sotheby’s.
After three years at the famous fine arts company she joined family run J.H. Bourdon-Smith near Mayfair where she stayed for 25 years and was ‘top of her field’ before her death.
Although Mr Spickernell lived 8,000 miles away from his sister, they remained in contact and would meet up at Christmas and on family birthdays.
He fondly tells me that Robyn would fly to South Africa to see the family and how he had stayed at her home during what would be his last visit to Britain to see her six months before her murder.
‘She was pretty much the sort of neighbourhood girl next door behind the white picket fence,’ he says.
‘She was a keen horse rider and rower, tennis, swimming. She had a little bit of a social life, but she wasn’t a party girl or a nightclub type girl.’
Her manager and friend Edward Bourdon-Smith was left devastated by her killing.
‘She’s got two lovely children who have lost a mother and lots of lovely friends have lost her,’ he said in 2016.
‘She was very important to all of us and we’ve all been very upset.
‘It would be a very good thing if whoever is responsible is caught, for the closure and for the family, and for ourselves.’
Friends and people from Walton rowing club, where the keen rower was a member, held a memorial for Robyn a month after her killing where her ashes were scattered and a boat naming ceremony took place in her honour.
One member spoke of Robyn being in a ‘chirpy’ spirit and seemingly ‘fine’ in the days before her death.
But at home there were tensions with Mr Webb. At the time Robyn was living upstairs with her ex occupying the bottom floor of the home.
He had refused to move out of the house he part-owned when their 10-year relationship broke down in November 2015.
By the time of her brutal killing Robyn had started a new relationship with someone she had met within the antiques scene who Mr Spickernell said was ‘very fond of her’.
Mr Webb was facing eviction after Robyn reportedly served him with a non-molestation and exclusion order.
The former couple owned the property as ‘tenants in common’ with Robyn owning 65 pc and Webb 35 pc.
He was later ruled out as a murder suspect by detectives but was jailed for eight months in October 2017 for forging her will in a bid to take control of the home.
Just days after he was told he was no longer a suspect he received a letter from solicitors informing him the family house was going to be sold on behalf of Robyn’s children and her half brother.
His whereabouts is currently unknown but there are rumours he could now be living in Australia.
A search of Littleheath Pond in nearby Oxshott in October 2016 is said to have uncovered several items included one that was deemed to be ‘crucial’
A team of divers from the Specialist Group International search Littleheath Pond in Oxshott in October 2016
The item was found on the bed of the lake by a diver from Specialist Group International (SGI)
Surrey police detectives said other items of ‘potential interest’ had also been found during the search of the water
Vehicles from Specialist Group International parked up near the police cordon as divers carried out a search of the pond
A sign on the window of JH Bourdon-Smith Ltd in London where Ms Mercer worked saying it would be closed for two days after the discovery of her body
Ms Mercer had worked at the upmarket antiques shop for 25 years with her manager and friend Edward Bourdon-Smith being left devastated by her killing
Despite police’s silenc,e Mr Spickernell is not giving up hope that one day they will get justice for Robyn.
‘Well, you know we’re optimistic. The glass is always half full as opposed to half empty,’ he says.
‘The irony is that me and Robyn were brought up in a country with an appalling police.
‘And we thought that, the fact she was murdered at all was a grave misgiving, if there was one consolation it was that it took place in a country which invented the modern police force concept, with an outstanding policing record globally.
‘We at least took some solace out of the fact that the case was in the hands of the English police, and not the South African police.
‘I think it’s very much dependent on the will of the individuals who are handling the matter to pursue it.
‘But we are hopeful.’
He added: ‘We find that certain cases get the whole kitchen cupboards thrown at them in terms of resource, manpower and critically media and exposure.
‘So murder is not just murder. Murder has a one to ten scale. And there’s a number of factors that determine that scale, in my opinion.
‘Some cases get a huge amount of resource, attention, efforts, specialist skill and manpower, logistics, etcetera, and others are just put on the back burner.’
In regards to Robyn’s murder, he said it was at number three on the scale.
‘And perhaps in our case because it’s only her two children who are left or rather exposed to that, and the rest of us are 4,000 to 5,000 miles away.
‘It’s not getting the exposure, it’s not getting the attention because there’s no consistent degree of applied attention.
‘The file gets moved from one officer to another officer and to another officer, and it gets moved from a liaison officer to another one to another one.
‘There’s no built up momentum. There’s no invested intellectual capital at play. The docket floats around there.’
MailOnline understands detectives have since contacted Mr Spickernell saying they wish to provide an update after this newspaper contacted Surrey police.
Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector Chris Friday, told MailOnline: ‘The murder of Robyn Mercer remains an ongoing investigation for this force.
‘We are as determined as ever to find those responsible for robbing a family of a loving and caring mother who was callously murdered outside her own property.
‘Mrs Mercer was devoted to her son and daughter who have been through incredible emotional turmoil since her death. We need the public’s help to solve this case and allow her family to find some form of closure.
‘We know that someone out there knows what happened to Robyn and who killed her. We do not want her family to have to wait any longer to find out those answers. If you do have some information, we would urge you to come forward.’
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